BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Mike Lucas had a front-row seat as Wisconsin lost to Iowa 59-57 at the Kohl Center Thursday. Here is what he saw from courtside.
SMALL BALL COMES UP A LITTLE SHORT
During the first media timeout (15:33) Thursday night, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard went to a small lineup with 6-foot freshman D'Mitrik Trice replacing 6-10 redshirt sophomore Ethan Happ, who was subbed back into the game less than two minutes later for Vitto Brown. In the first half, Gard used nine players in his rotation, including Trice, Brevin Pritzl, Khalil Iverson and Aaron Moesch. Neither Iverson, nor Moesch played after halftime. But 6-4 guard Jordan Hill logged 11 minutes off the bench.
Addressing the use of a three-guard lineup exclusively in the second half against Iowa (an up-tempo, pressing, aggressive, multiple defense team), Gard said, "That's what I planned to do, I wanted to do that for most of the game and I did it quite a bit in the first half, too. I was trying to use Vitto, Ethan and Nigel (Hayes) at the 4 and 5 just because I felt against their zone (a 2-3 and 3-2 matchup) and against their pressure (1-2-2), I wanted more ball-handlers on the floor."
To simulate the Hawkeyes full and three-quarter court pressure in practice, the Badgers brought the ball up against six defenders. Hill was usually the lead guard on the scout team, a role that he has played throughout the season. "We've been using his skill set there to try and simulate opponents," Gard said of Hill, who had played less than 10 minutes in five of the last seven games. "I thought Jordan Hill was a huge spark plug for us (Thursday). He gave us a boost when we needed it."
With the Badgers trailing, 43-41, Zak Showalter picked up his third foul at 12:10 of the second half. That prompted Gard to go with Hill, who made his presence felt almost immediately on defense. Collapsing off a ball-screen, he intercepted a Peter Jok bounce pass intended for Ryan Griener. A few possessions later, he stepped into the passing lane between Isaiah Moss and Brady Ellingson for the steal, the run-out and the dunk. Hill also had an offensive rebound that led to a Showalter 3-pointer.
"He (Hill) was good for us tonight," said Gard, also citing his work defensively when matched against Jok, a versatile scorer. "For a guy who hasn't gotten a lot of reps with (the starters in practice) ... to come in that type of situation and do that type of job, it's a credit to him … he really got us going. It's unfortunate he had that turnover."
That turnover off an inbounds play led to an Iowa basket followed by a Nigel Hayes turnover off an inbounds play and another Iowa basket. The irony is that Hawks scored only six points off turnovers and four came on those back to back possessions. In the final two minutes, they capitalized on every opportunity, including two missed free throws and an offensive rebound that led to the winning 3-pointer by Jordan Bohannon. "We just have to do a better job of closing out the game," said Hayes.
DID YOU NOTICE?
- At the 3:12 mark of the second half, Showalter was charged with a foul while guarding Peter Jok whose right forearm made contact with Showalter's head. The replay review didn't take place until after Jok made his first free throw. After checking out the video, Jok was assessed a flagrant one. Jok made his second free throw and Showalter made one-of-two, making it 57-52, the last point the Badgers scored.
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- Showalter was the primary defender on Jok, the Big Ten's leading scorer. As expected, they had an intense battle at both ends. Jok, who was averaging 20, managed just eight points (2-of-10 FG). It was only the second time in 28 games that he tallied less than 10. He also had five turnovers.
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- After the Hawkeyes went on a 15-2 run to close out the first half, the Badgers countered with their own 15-2 run in the second half to take a 54-45 lead with 4:19 to play. Hayes had eight of his 10 points and five of his seven rebounds after intermission. "We have to put together a full game," Hayes said. "We've come out and played well in spurts. We're too spurt-y — if that's a word — as a team."
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- In his last two games against the Hawkeyes, Koenig has gone 8-of-14 from beyond the 3-point line. Last year in Iowa City, he was 4-of-6 and finished with 15 points in what was Wisconsin's sixth straight win over the Hawks in the series. On Thursday, he was 4-of-8 from the arc and had 19 points.
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- Iowa prides itself on fast break points. Yet the Badgers held the Hawkeyes to only one basket in transition, the same number that they had. Moreover, after giving up 83 and 85 points on their road swing to Ohio State and Michigan State, they gave up 59 to a team that has been averaging 80.8 points.
A NOTE TO QUOTE
By going 2-of-4 from the stripe, Hayes broke Alando Tucker's school record for most career free throws. Hayes now has 521 (521-of-775) in 143 games, one more than Tucker (520-of-817) in 134 games. Rounding out the top 5Â in FT's are Michael Finley (456), Claude Gregory (433) and Clarence Sherrod/Danny Jones (408 each). Hayes, by the way, also broke a tie with Rick Olson and passed Claude Gregory to move up to No. 4 on the UW's all-time scoring list with 1,746 points. Tucker (2,217), Finley (2,147) and Danny Jones (1,854) are the only players to have scored more.
A QUOTE TO NOTE
While walking to the postgame media room, Showalter tried to digest what had just happened — lamenting the inability to finish out halves and games during what he called those "clutch" minutes. "We need to make better decisions obviously," he said. "They made plays down the stretch. Give credit to them … I hate losing … Now, we've got to respond. We're not playing our best basketball at all. But if we start playing like we know we're capable of playing, we still know that we're a force to be reckoned with. Sunday is senior night and we'll all be ready to play."
THE SKINNY ON MINNESOTA
Who would have guessed that after Wisconsin beat Minnesota, 78-76, in overtime at Williams Arena (Jan 21) that the Badgers and the Gophers would take such divergent paths to their rematch at the Kohl Center. Nobody is the answer.
Happ and Hayes were nearly unstoppable in the paint while combining for 49 points (20-of-37 FGs) — not to mention going 8-of-11 from the free throw line — as the Badgers upped their overall record to 16-3/5-1 in the Big Ten. The Gophers dropped to 15-5/3-4 in what was their third conference loss in a five-game losing streak. Since then, they have been unstoppable.
Minnesota has won eight straight. What has made the difference? "They didn't push the panic button, they didn't change things they had been doing, they stuck with it and continued to do what they do, continued to rely on their defense, and they've just done it better," said UW assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft. "They're playing with an extremely high amount of swagger right now that they are one of the better teams in the Big Ten and they certainly are. They're playing like it and they're believing in it."
On Thursday night, the Gophers overwhelmed Nebraska, 88-73, to improve their home record to 17-3. Jordan Murphy had 20 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double in the last seven games. During this stretch, he's averaging 17.6 points and 13.6 rebounds. In the first meeting against Wisconsin, Murphy was essentially a no-show with four points and one rebound.
Amir Coffey led Minnesota in scoring with 19 points. Akeem Springs, the UW-Milwaukee transfer, added 16 points, including the triple that sent the game in OT. Although Nate Mason struggled from the field (3-of-14 for eight points), he had 10 assists and two steals. Since then, Mason has been in double-figures in 10 straight games and he's averaging 19 points. Mason had 25 against Nebraska.
The Gophers have a lot of weapons, not the least of which are Dupree McBrayer, a complementary scorer to Mason, Coffey and Murphy; and Reggie Lynch, a shot blocker. Lynch has a school-record 101 blocks; he's had three or more in a game 18 times, including five against the UW.
"They've revived the whole program and the state is rallying behind them — you can feel it, you can sense it," Krabbenhoft said. "It's going to be a big challenge for us. But that's what we want. We want that in our rivalries, we want that in our Big Ten. It makes us better."
GARDO SEZ
"I think this group will bounce back. They have all year. I have no reason to think they wouldn't now. When we do snap out of it, it's going to be a pretty calloused group because they've been body-punched and slapped up-side the head quite a bit with all of this stuff and everything that we've had to work through and grow through."
